Rays get limited lift from Evan Longoria

The Rays have been scoring three-quarters of a run more with Evan Longoria in their lineup than without him this year. He’s back, but for the time being is limited to DH duties and unlikely to play more than three or four games in a row before resting his hamstrings.

Don’t pencil in Angels rookie Mike Trout for the Hall of Fame just yet. One other player had a 20 homer, 30 stolen base season before age 22, and Cesar Cedeno ended his 17-year career with 199 homers and 550 stolen bases.

The Nationals are both good and well-behaved. They were the only big-league team that went into the weekend without an ejection this season. The Tigers had the most ejections with nine, including manager Jim Leyland four times.

Reds prospect Billy Hamilton could wind up leading both the Class-A California League and Double-A Southern League in stolen bases. He didn’t join the Pensacola Blue Wahoos until July 11 but had 29 steals entering the weekend, only 12 behind league leader Josh Prince. Hamilton stole 104 bases for Bakersfield.

When not monitoring Nationals pitcher Stephen Strasburg’s innings, take a look at his batting average. His .343 mark is the best among pitchers with at least 27 at-bats this season and close to Orel Hershiser’s .356 in 1993, the best for a pitcher since 1974.

Yes, the Diamondbacks are playing a doubleheader at Chase Field, their retractable-roof stadium. The Aug. 22 affair is the result of a scheduling error that had the team playing more than the maximum 20 days without an off day.

How long was the Indians’ losing streak? During the 11-game slide, they designated four players for assignment — Derek Lowe, Johnny Damon, Jose Lopez and Jeremy Accardo — and released minor-league pitcher Jason Knapp, who was advertised as the prime catch in the package of players received from the Phillies in the 2009 Cliff Lee trade.

Roy Halladay wants no part of talk about shutting him down early to preserve him for 2013 and beyond. The Phillies are likely to pull the plug soon on Vance Worley, who is pitching with bone chips in his elbow.

The Rangers’ Roy Oswalt wants another chance to start but is sincere about wanting to be an asset to the bullpen. He and Manager Ron Washington appear to have an understanding that can work.

The Twins are running out of patience with infielder Tsuyoshi Nishioka, in whom former General Manager Bill Smith invested $14.5 million before 2011. Bert Blyleven says he’s been “overmatched” since arriving from Japan.

David Ortiz should be back soon but doesn’t think he’ll be in peak form until he takes a month off to get an ultrasound treatment on his right Achilles. Like Bobby Valentine, Ortiz still believes the Red Sox can make a run up the wild-card standings. For everything that’s gone wrong with them, the killer has been a 15-27 record in starts by Jon Lester and Josh Beckett.